As the number of wireless standards and the range of frequencies of wireless communications continue to increase, there is an increasing need for communication receivers that are capable of handling multiple wireless standards spanning a wide range of frequencies. Also, as the number of wireless devices and the amount of wireless communications taking place increase, the communication receivers may have to be able to function satisfactorily in the presence of large amounts of noise and interference.
Further, the multitude of battery operated wireless devices has created a demand for extremely low-power transceivers to increase the handset talk time and to reduce the battery size and ultimately the cost. Meanwhile, the noise and linearity requirements are becoming more stringent to meet the quest for higher data rates with a highly congested spectrum. Typically, implementing low-noise receivers may become more challenging when the design objectives also include reconfigurable low-power consumption or wideband operation, and size reduction.
Therefore, the need exists for a low noise receiver that is reconfigurable for low-power or wideband operation, and can be implemented on a smaller chip area.